Every year, the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas sponsors a seminar about the female bike consumer. “It’s always the same material — how women have the buying power in the U.S.,” says Joan Martocello, a manager at Bike Gallery, a Portland bike store chain. “Then you go into bike shops and still see the girlie posters.” Even in cycle-friendly Portland, says Martocello, the male-dominated bike shop environment “is quite a bit intimidating for women.”

The aptly named environmental consultant Paul Fishman has enjoyed a long career at the intersection of the built environment and the natural world. His biggest projects have involved elaborate cleanups that balance the needs of industrial clients facing regulatory pressure and endangered fish in the Willamette River. None has been larger or more complex than his latest, the long-awaited cleanup of the Zidell property along the river between downtown and South Waterfront.